The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has announced granting EGP 2.5m prizes to Egypt’s youth and junior handball teams after winning the Men’s U-19 World Handball Championship in Skopje, North Macedonia and the bronze medal at the Men’s Junior World Championship in Spain.

Hesham Nasr, president of the Egyptian Handball Federation, told Daily News Egypt that the NBE is the first Egyptian side to notify him of financial awards to the national teams. The award for the U-19 team will be higher than that of the U-21 team, as they were crowned world champions.

Nasr explained that this announcement was only a few hours after the tournament concluded, and there may be other financial awards from businesspeople or companies.

He pointed out that the International Handball Federation does not give teams that achieve advanced positions any financial prizes, according to regulations.

Moreover, since the Egyptian Handball Federation has cancelled its sponsorship contract with Presentation Sports in April, the federation has not received any other sponsorship offers. The federation cancelled its EGP 50m sponsorship contract with Presentation, which was supposed to extend until the 2021 World Cup in Cairo because of the company’s failure to comply with the terms of the contract, the federation said in a statement.

Nasr predicted that the federation will receive many sponsoring offers after the national teams’ outstanding results.

He explained that the federation allocated $1,500 prize for each player after winning the World Championship. Moreover, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Ashraf Sobhy, told Daily News Egypt that the ministry will award EGP 112,500 for each player according to the regulations of the ministry. While the U-21 youth team will receive EGP 59,000 prize for each player.

Sources told Daily News Egypt that Sobhy is expected to cut short his visit to Morocco and return to Cairo to welcome the U-19 handball team scheduled to arrive home on Tuesday.